McNamee again asks judge to toss Roger Clemens lawsuit

NEW YORK -- Brian McNamee responded to Roger Clemens by again asking a federal judge to toss out the pitcher's defamation suit or move it to a New York court.

In papers filed late Wednesday night with the U.S. District Court in Houston, McNamee replied to Clemens' submission on Aug. 7, which urged the court to reject McNamee's July motion to dismiss the case.

"From the Sunday evening in early January when Clemens first filed this case until today, his entire focus has been to enervate Brian McNamee, someone he knows to have almost no money, by dragging him into Texas courts where, in Clemens's view, he will have a better shot at preventing Brian from defending himself," McNamee's lawyers wrote.

"This is Clemens's continuing bully tactic to try to 'prove' his lies and salvage the career he destroyed by prevaricating in front of the fans who watched him self-destruct on national television."

U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison could decide the motion on papers or schedule oral arguments in the case.

Clemens sued McNamee, his former trainer, for defamation after McNamee told baseball investigator George Mitchell that the seven-time Cy Young Award winner used steroids and human growth hormone. Clemens also claims he was defamed when McNamee repeated his allegations to SI.com.

Clemens originally filed the suit in Texas state court, but McNamee had it removed to the federal system. McNamee, a New York resident, prefers the case be heard in New York.

In trying to establish that the case should be moved, McNamee cited a suit involving Anna Nicole Smith. McNamee also maintains his statements to Mitchell should be immune because federal authorities threatened him with prosecution if he didn't cooperate with baseball's probe.

"Clemens's effort to shanghai Brian to Texas, to subject him to the expense and rigors of discovery and, perhaps, trial, should not be permitted," McNamee's lawyers wrote. "Unlike visiting teams and Clemens himself, Brian cannot afford private airplanes, hotel suites and limousines."